Begin
by ardavenport
Summary: Qui-Gon participates in another Jedi Master’s padawan’s training. Qui-Gon and other Jedi with Obi-Wan and Bant near the end.
1. Chapter 1

**Begin**

by ardavenport

– Part 1

"Begin," Yoda commanded.

Qui-Gon Jinn swung his lightsaber up before him and ignited it in a salute, his lightsaber a vertical line of green fire. Ayzhur Ahmus did the same, its bright green light reflecting on his pale face and brown tunic.

The Jedi master facing Ayzhur looked far too fit and skilled for his taste, and too tall, nearly a head taller than Ayzhur. He was only the Padawan to Master Li Hafkay. True, he had many years of experience, nearly ready to take the trials according to Master Li, but still just a Learner. 'There is something to be learned from every defeat,' Ayzhur reminded himself. But he still would rather have been fighting Master Jinn's much younger apprentice instead.

Ayzhur kept both hands on his lightsaber salute, closed his eyes and trusted the Force.

Qui-Gon paused for a moment. He'd never seen that as on opening move for a sparring match before. Master Yoda impatiently tapped his gimer stick.

"Begin."

Qui-Gon twirled his lightsaber in wide circles at his side and attacked.

Ayzhur hardly moved, but his green blade met Qui-Gon's, deflecting it away from him. Qui-Gon swiftly reversed, stabbing upward, going for Ayzhur's throat, but surprisingly his opponent went sideways and bodily moved into Qui-Gon, catching his arm in an elbow lock and falling. Though shorter than his opponent and slightly built, he was still heavy enough to bring them both down. Qui-Gon tried to roll with it, but Ayzhur got his ankles between his knees and they collapsed together in an undignified heap. Just as they hit the floor Ayzhur's thumbnail dug into the nerve between Qui-Gon's fourth and fifth fingers. Qui-Gon felt the Force press down hard from Ayzhur's hand into his. His lightsaber fell, deactivated, his fingers suddenly numb. Ayzhur's own lightsaber went out immediately afterward.

After a pause, they untangled themselves and got up separately. Exhilarated, Ayzhur knew that even if he were crushed now, it wouldn't be a total defeat. Qui-Gon rose carefully. Ayzhur had mostly landed on top of him, but nothing was seriously bruised. He'd been concentrating on anticipating his opponent's fighting style; it hadn't occurred to him that Ayzhur wouldn't use any style at all. They had never fought before.

Master Yoda did not look happy, but he said nothing and signed for them to continue.

On a bench at the side of the arena Master Li raised his eyebrows and smiled a little, his dark blue eyes pleased. Human, he was older than Qui-Gon. His dark, blue-tinged hair, faded and going white in places, was tied in a frizzy topknot. Only a little bit of blue remained in his rough beard that was nearly white. His dark brown, blue-tinged skin was paling and wrinkling a bit with age. He sat with his arms folded, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his light brown tunic. Ayzhur relied too much on surprising his opponents and opportunities for such physical contact with an opponent were rare, he reflected, but considering how overmatched he was, this was an exceptional start.

Next to him sat Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was a few years younger than Ayzhur, with a shorter Padawan's braid behind his ear. He was similar in look to Ayzhur but with shorter, lighter brown hair. His Master looked contemplative and more displeased with himself than with Ayzhur. Obi-Wan would have expected that he would be sparring with Ayzhur and Qui-Gon with Master Li when they'd first entered the training rooms and looked for partners among the Jedi there. There had been quite a lot of Jedi Masters for Qui-Gon to pick from but nobody near Obi-Wan's skill level until they'd come across Li and Ayzhur.

But Master Yoda had suggested the match between Qui-Gon and Ayzhur. And a suggestion about lightsaber training from the diminutive Master was not one to be ignored.

Qui-Gon and Ayzhur faced each other in the small training arena in the Jedi Temple. They were both human males; Ayzhur, dark-haired, bare-faced, younger, but very quick; Qui-Gon, tall, long-haired and bearded with years of experience, strong with the Living Force, and just as quick.

Ayzhur tried to move in close again, but Qui-Gon didn't let him, using his longer reach to best advantage. Attack, evade, attack, evade. Every time Qui-Gon advanced Ayzhur managed to slip away. He offered only a token offense, all his other moves were defensive. What surprised Qui-Gon was that he couldn't seem to anticipate what his opponent was going to do. The younger man's moves were random to him, undecipherable, even through the Force.

Qui-Gon circled, clearing his mind. His next attack was loose, not aimed at a focused target, but advancing with total awareness of his opponent and where he could trap him. He kept his own saber moving in its own random motions, constantly challenging Ayzhur with it even if he wasn't attacking.

Ayzhur evaded more forcefully this time, or frantically. After just one match, Qui-Gon Jinn had pretty much proven who the Master was. Ayzhur dodged a downward swing, deflecting Qui-Gon's saber from his back and pushing off of it to roll away. Immediately, Qui-Gon was upon him, his lightsaber arcing over to pin him. Ayzhur twisted away to block, his free hand going up for balance, his fingers brushing Qui-Gon's saber arm.

Qui-Gon felt a simultaneous push at his elbow and pull on his forearm through the Force. He pulled away, but Ayzhur's whole body rose with the Force and he brought his lightsaber pommel down toward his wrist. This time Qui-Gon evaded, twisting his wrist out of the way at the last minute. Ayzhur's blow missed, but the rest of his body came down on Qui-Gon's forearm and they went down again, Qui-Gon's lightsaber deactivating just before Ayzhur's.

They slowly got up and separated again. Disappointed with his mistake, Qui-Gon shook his arm. He had adopted some of Ayzhur's style (or lack of it) and had unfortunately fallen into one of its weaknesses. By focusing on an unpredictable offense, he'd lost his focus on winning the fight itself.

He looked at Master Yoda.

Yoda shook his head, no sympathy in his large, expressive eyes. "Against all forms of attack," he told Qui-Gon. "You should prepare for." he finished to Ayzhur, his long, pointed ears perking up a bit and his eyes narrowing.

Ayzhur suppressed his smile. Overconfidence would be his undoing, he knew. But he felt great; the Force was working for him today. True, he hadn't won conventionally, not the way a saber master like Yoda liked to see. He'd been pretty sloppy by Yoda's standards (and his long ears were lowered in disapproval), but a desperate defense had its uses.

On the bench, Master Li did smile; Obi-Wan noticed. He saw Qui-Gon sigh and give Ayzhur a serious look, like someone who, having tied of puzzling out a knot, now just wanted to get the job done.

A motion caught Obi-Wan's eye. He saw another person in a pale Jedi tunic come from behind them, holding out a data link for Master Li.

"Bant!" He mouthed the name without speaking aloud. The Calamari girl bobbed her head and grinned. They'd been students together at the Temple when they were younglings and hadn't seen each other in some time, their lives as Padawan Learners often keeping then away from the Temple on missions to worlds all over the Republic and beyond.

She bowed her salmon colored head to Master Li and handed him a data link. He quietly thanked her and glanced at the tiny screen. Bant moved toward Obi-Wan but then stopped, her large amphibian eyes suddenly up and alert.

Master Yoda had noticed the activity by the bench and looked quite unhappy. Ayzhur and Qui-Gon were facing each other again, waiting for the diminutive master's signal. Li leaned over to Obi-Wan.

"You two should go to another arena and train," he told them encouragingly. "I don't know what Master Yoda is looking for, but it might take a little time." Obi-Wan looked back at his own Master, who returned a little smile and raised his eyebrows in assent. They hurried out of the room together.

"Hmph." Yoda looked a little put out by the interruption. Li Hafkay put the data link aside on the bench beside him. Both Ayzhur and Qui-Gon closed their eyes and breathed, preparing for the next match. Behind Ayzhur's back, the door to the other training rooms slid shut.

"Begin."

Ayzhur opened his eyes and started to raise his saber. His finger froze on the activation switch. Qui-Gon's eyes were different. Ayzhur felt a warning in the Force.

The larger man thrust his arm out. A colossal Force push lifted Ayzhur up and threw him across the room to slam between two pillars on a far wall. Stunned, Ayzhur crashed to the floor. He rolled automatically and immediately pushed himself away from Qui-Gon's downswing. The green saber slashed into the wall and gouged the floor where he'd been.

His lightsaber snapping on, Ayzhur scrambled to his feet just in time to block Qui-Gon's saber. The warning came through the Force at him from all sides; peril, death, fear. He deflected Qui-Gon's attacks without thinking, letting it all flow through him, his concentration going beyond thought or emotion. But the attack still pushed him back. Even wielding his saber two-handed Ayzhur felt the impacts through his elbows up to his shoulders. These were killing blows.

The rules had changed.

The room seemed subtly darker, the patterned, stone floor colder. Ayzhur frantically dodged and parried the other lightsaber. But the rapidly spinning blade continued to drive him back. He finally met it head on, crossing his own fiery green blade against it. It slowly pressed toward him, the Force pressing on him with it; the air hummed, becoming dry and electric as the glowing blade kept getting closer. Ayzhur twisted, suddenly letting it forward while simultaneously ducking underneath and kicking. His foot connected to a body, but it wasn't a solid blow.

Ayzhur gathered the Force in him and leapt up, somersaulting over his opponent, hoping to attack from behind. But he nearly got his legs cut off as the green light swept under him and he only barely deflected it with the tip of his own weapon as he crashed to the ground. The pain washed through him and he pushed it away as he rolled. The other saber came at him again and he attacked, aiming for the arm. But it swung out of reach and he missed. He kept spinning and his saber connected, locking again with the other.

Face to face with Qui-Gon Jinn, their green sabers crossed between them, he saw only deadly purpose. He was being studied, examined, possibly dissected. Death, peril, fear. Ayzhur exhaled, forming his own purpose. Survive. Disarm the other. Question later. The walls of the room around them had gone completely dark.

The Force pressed down on him, an increasing pressure in his head, obeying only the merciless will of the other Jedi, flowing from him, slowly pushing Ayzhur down. He felt the skin of his neck grow warm as the other saber closed. It was hard to breathe.

Suddenly, Qui-Gon vanished from above. Released, Ayzhur fell back on the hard floor as Qui-Gon swung up and back, his long, green saber meeting a blue lightsaber. His own Master engaged the larger man. Li Hafkay's robe swirled around him as their lightsabers clashed together, their energies crackling.

Ayzhur jumped up and joined his Master in the fight. They tried to catch the other Jedi between them, but he would always spin away, keeping them on one side. And they constantly had to dodge that deadly green blade, longer than either of theirs. Ayzhur focused entirely on disabling Qui-Gon. But Master Li was clearly trying to decapitate, at least dismember him. Several times he tried to come in close, slashing across the body or the head, but Master Qui-Gon countered each move, returning with his own deadly blows.

Then Li leapt up, over Qui-Gon and they had him between them. Qui-Gon's arm shot out and the Force pushed Ayzhur down hard on the stone floor. Then he whirled and caught Li's attacking saber at the base of the blade, twisting. The blue blade went out, the saber hilt flying away into the darkness.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!!" Ayzhur flew up off the ground, but the taller man's lightsaber continued on its arc away from him and downward onto his Master. No way to deflect it.

Ayzhur's lightsaber plunged down into the middle of Qui-Gon's back, all the way to the hilt. The longer, green lightsaber went out, falling at Li's feet. The smell of burning cloth and flesh nearly overwhelmed him as he pulled it out again. Ayzhur's green blade vanished. The hilt slid out of his hand. He grabbed Qui-Gon as he began to sink down to the floor.

— end Part 1


	2. Chapter 2

**Begin**

by ardavenport

– Part 2

Ayzhur gasped as he pressed his palm to the black wound on his victim's chest, as if he might hold in the life that was slipping away. Fear, peril, death. It didn't flow through him now. It flowed into him. Filling him up with all the possibilities that he'd just destroyed, pressing in on his head. Mindless sound filled his ears. Ayzhur fell back, pushing away from the body, gulping for air. Everything darkened around him.

He'd lost all feeling. Sight and sound were there, but they meant nothing, as if he were deaf and blind. Then hands squeezing his shoulders, passing before his eyes, penetrated the din of trauma. He didn't respond to the motion, but the Force trickled into his withered consciousness. The hands kept prodding him and Ayzhur looked up.

Qui-Gon Jinn crouched next to him. His dark blue eyes had lost their deadly purpose, though they still looked right into him. His hands were warm. Ayzhur noticed for the first time how similar Jinn's dark blue eyes were to his own Master's.

Ayzhur stared. Then he threw himself at the man, wrapping his arms around the other's body. The fractures of lost possibilities that had crowded his mind collapsed and shrank in on themselves. Head pressed to the chest, Ayzhur could feel a heartbeat. Tears filled his eyes, all emotions shunted aside during the fight came out. His hands kept moving on the wide, strong back, looking for any trace of charred fabric or flesh. There was none. He hugged this new, restored Qui-Gon tightly, throwing himself wholly into this new reality. The light had returned.

A new pair of hands took him by the shoulders, gently pulling him away. Qui-Gon as well, carefully loosened Ayzhur's grip on him. Ayzhur was turned toward the other and he looked at Li Hafkay, kneeling before him.

His own Master's blue eyes, teary with emotion, gazed back at him.

"You have done well, my Padawan."

"I was right." Barely able to speak, tears ran freely down Ayzhur's cheeks. "All this time I was right."

"It would seem so," Li agreed. Since he was a boy, Ayzhur Ahmus had known that taking another life would destroy him. Until now, he'd had no idea how this wold be, but he'd known it with a certainty that had never been shaken. So, when he was very young he had assumed and accepted that he could not be a Jedi Knight. How could he fight or defend himself or his comrades if he were incapable of destroying an enemy? He hadn't spoken of this to anyone, but when he had come of age and Li Hafkay had invited him to be his apprentice, Ayzhur had solemnly told the older man of his flaw and begged his pardon. Hafkay had simply looked nonplused and said, 'I don't think that, of all things, will be an impediment.'

As Master Li's student, he'd learned that there were many Jedi who had sacrificed themselves rather than take another life, or had declared that they could not kill without killing themselves. Or had fallen into total decline when they did. Some had even been members of the Council. He'd never even thought to look up such information when he was younger. Hafkay had taught him never to make such broad assumptions about anything.

But now he knew. He could kill. And it would destroy him.

"You do know." Li Hafkay seemed to read his thoughts. Ayzhur nodded.

"I'll just go insane, if I have to do it." The vision had showed him that. And it would take many hours of meditation for him to decipher any other wisdom or foretelling in it. "And I might have to do it anyway." Li nodded back. "Then what will I be?"

"Then you will become something else, my Padawan."

"That doesn't make me very good for backup. If I'm done after just one attack," Ayzhur finished with a sad smile.

"Possibly," Li conceded. He leaned close, their foreheads touching. "But the universe has many places for all your strengths, Ayzhur. And the Jedi would fall into darkness if we required that all our acolytes be killers, even in the defense of others."

Li lowered his eyes, his face in shadow and Ayzhur looked down. His master gave him his lightsaber and then rose.

"You are ready, my Padawan."

He stepped back and pulled the hood of his robe over his head. He walked backward to join the circle of hooded Jedi Masters that had formed around the center of the arena, around Ayzhur.

Tap, tap, tap.

Master Yoda slowly approached, coming out from the darkness to the circle of light. Ayzhur straightened, but didn't get up. Even half lying, half sitting on the floor, his head was still taller than the smaller being now positioned before him. The gimer stick fell away and Yoda's lightsaber suddenly flew into his clawed hand, the green blade igniting. Lightsabers ignited all around them, bright greens and blues slicing through the gloom, upraised in unison.

The tip of Yoda's lightsaber barely brushed Ayzhur's shoulder. The other lightsabers lowered, pointing downward, into the circle.

"Ayzhur Ahmus."

"By the right of the council."

"By the will of the force."

"Dub thee I do, Jedi."

"Knight of the Republic."

Ayzhur audibly wept as the words were spoken. A corner of his mind wildly thought that he had to be more dignified about this as the tears ran down his cheeks and dripped off chin. But no one seemed to take any notice. Yoda's saber flicked at the side of his head. Ayzhur felt nothing, but his Padawan's braid fell down to floor before him.

Yoda's saber went out and the others followed. The small lightsaber disappeared under Yoda's robes again and the stick lifted from the ground to the small, clawed hand. He approached very close. His large green eyes, bright with emotion, looked up into Azyhur's.

"Rise," he commanded very softly.

For one insane moment, Ayzhur thought that he would grab Master Yoda and hug him as he had Qui-Gon. Then he looked down again at the tiny and very powerful council member and thought better of it. Trembling, he stood. He hooked his lightsaber back onto his belt.

The moment seemed to pass. The lights in the room returned. The circle around them degenerated into a crowd of Jedi Masters milling about.

His old Master approached, holding Ayzhur's robe. Li sighed, took a light brown sleeve and wiped Ayzhur's face with it. Startled, Ayzhur pulled back. Li shrugged.

"Well, you don't think I was going to use my own robe for that?"

Ayzhur stared back. Then he grabbed Li in a fierce hug. And the older man returned it just as tightly.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bant looked about the well-lit training arenas. Something was going on. First they'd been forced to go fairly far to find a place to spar in because every nearer place was occupied by Jedi masters. Now, after their few matches together there were even more robed, Jedi masters around, but none of them were fighting. They gathered mostly in groups of tows and threes, speaking softly among themselves.

Bant gasped and her long, soft hand grabbed his arm. Obi-Wan looked where she was pointing. Ayzhur and Li stood with a few others; Master Yoda hovered nearby in a small, cushioned lift chair. Then Obi-Wan noticed. Ayzhur's Padawan's braid was missing.

They stared together. Then Bant and Obi-Wan looked at each other, then back to Ayzhur, mouths agape with the realization of what must have just happened.

"You're staring, Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon's voice came from behind them, his older, bearded face amused. Obi-Wan closed his mouth and Bant shyly bowed.

"Yes, Master," Obi-Wan answered. Qui-Gon could see that his padawan and his friend were burning with suppressed questions. Of course, they knew that Qui-Gon was forbidden to answer and he appreciated their discretion, if not their barely restrained curiosity. He walked and they followed. He casually asked about their training and they had to pause to remember what they'd been doing while Qui-Gon was occupied. He listened and offered a few suggestions. They bowed their heads as they passed Ayzhur and Li on their way out of the training area. Goth Obi-Wan and Bant noticed Ayzhur making direct eye contact with Qui-Gon and their curiosity flared anew.

He would send them off to the midday meal while he went to be alone to meditate. Qui-Gon had been honored to serve as the focus of Ayzhur Ahmus's Trials, but it had been disturbing in unexpected ways. One could not participate in a vision without being affected personally. Visions were like that, unpredictable.

The mortal lightsaber blow had felt disturbingly...familiar.

It could mean so many things and not the wisest Jedi master could be sure of what. Unacknowledged fear. Foreshadowing of a possible future. For Ayzhur. Or himself. Or a memory from someone else. Intuition or imagination? Qui-Gon exhaled, saving his thoughts for when he could give them proper attention.

The three of them left the training area together.

**-- END --**

(This story first posted on tf.n - - 12-Mar-2006)

**Disclaimer:** All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.


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